Monday, November 8, 2010

More on Copyright Infringement

Recently, I posted about an editor who allegedly took an article from a blog, without permission, and printed it in her magazine. Her reply to the author, when questioned, was that the author should be happy her article was reprinted.

>>"But honestly Monica, the Web is considered 'public domain' and you should be happy we just didn't 'lift' your whole article and put someone else's name on it!... If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than [it] was originally.... For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me... ALWAYS for free!"<< (from the author)

Wow! Well, the incident went viral and there's now even a Wikipedia entry about it! Will be interesting to see what happens to the editor.